Jermell Charlo should avoid Sebastian Fundora, fight Tim Tszyu says Abner Mares

By Boxing News - 05/22/2022 - Comments

By Jim Calfa: Abner Mares says undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo should avoid unbeaten 6’6″ Sebastian ‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora and instead take on the easy to hit Tim Tszyu for his next fight.

Mares feels that the heavy-handed Tszyu (21-0, 15 KOs) is the ideal opponent for Charlo to beat because he doesn’t move his head and plods forward in a straight-ahead style.

To be sure, Tszyu is dangerous because of his power, but he’d be at the mercy of Jermell’s power because he would have an easy-to-hit target.

Although the 27-year-old Tszyu is a little older than the 24-year-old Fundora, he’s not as advanced as him in ability and hasn’t fought the same kind of opposition.

Fundora has been thrown in deep already in fights against Erickson Lubin, Sergio Garcia, Jorge Cota, and Nathaniel Gallimore. He looked impressive in each of those fights, particularly against Lubin.

In comparison, the only name that Tszyu has fought as a professional is Terrell Gausha, who looked badly flawed in scraping by with a close 12-round decision over the American.

It’s not that Fundora (19-0-1, 13 KOs) is difficult to hit, but his size, youth, high punching, and strong punch resistance make him a difficult fight for the four-belt 154-lb champion Jermell (35-1-1, 19 KOs).

Fundora has better power than Brian Castano, and he’d be hitting Charlo with a high number of shots, daring him to try and keep up with him.

The movement that Jermell showed in his rematch with the 32-year-old Castano (17-1-2, 12 KOs) wouldn’t be sufficient to keep tall Fundora off of him.

He cuts off the ring well on movers, and the 32-year-old Charlo isn’t going to keep the younger from forcing him to fight in a phonebooth war.

Jermell should NOT fight Fundora

“I think his next move should be to defend those belts for another one or two fights,” said Abner Mares to The Volume about what Jermell Charlo should do next.

“I wouldn’t want to fight Fundora. How does Fundora make 154 pounds?” said Chris Mannix. “What the hell? I just did a fight with Gilberto Ramirez. Gilberto made weight at 175, and then he ballooned to 204 the next day.

“I would not want to fight a 6’6″ Sebastian Fundora at 154 pounds. I don’t even know what weight he’s coming in at when he gets in the ring,” said Mannix.

“Yeah, that’s definitely one guy that you want to avoid for now because he shows up, and we don’t know what weight,” said Mares. “The kid can fight. He throws a lot of punches. He’s not really a technical fighter, and he doesn’t even use his reach. Throw that away.

“This is a guy that fights inside. I want to say it was Crawford that said that Fundora is a cheat code on video games. You cheat, and you get this bigger guy in a weight class that he shouldn’t be.

“As long as the guy can make weight and use it as an advantage, go for it,” said Mares about ‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora.

“I thought Paul Williams was a big welterweight, and he was, but Sebastian Fundora at junior middleweight is just massive,” said Mannix.

“He’s getting better by the fight, it seems. That power is growing over the last few fights. If you just look at Erickson Lubin’s face, that’ll kind of tell you the story there of how big a puncher Fundora is,” said Mannix.

The size dimension and the non-stopping punching style of Fundora are reason enough for Jermell to avoid fighting him. Charlo does punch hard, but not much harder than Erickson Lubin.

Getting hit with all those shots being thrown from different angles by Fundora will likely be too much for the 32-year-old Charlo, and he’s not young enough to be taking that kind of punishment from that type of fighter at this stage in his 15-year career.

Charlo should fight Tim Tszyu next

I would put him in the less complicated fight. Tim Tszyu, no disrespect to him or his team, I feel he’s the lesser threat,” Mares continued about his view that Jermell should fight Tszyu rather than the 6’6″Sebastian Fundora next.

“He’s a great fighter, but if you had to compare him to Fundora, I think Tszyu would be a good match-up [for Jermell] in a fight that I think he can win.

“I believe Fundora would be a much more difficult fight based on the volume, the reach, and the height, and we saw what he did with [Erickson] Lubin.

“I love Lubin. That’s one guy I was high on too. Styles make fights, and Fundora was, unfortunately, the bigger guy. He just couldn’t figure him out. I would love a fight against Tszyu [for Jermell].

“Tszyu is a great name and a good match-up. I’m not saying it’s not going to be such a difficult fight, but I think it would be a lesser threat [than Fundora for Charlo].

“I think he should go that route and then move up to a higher division to the next class [middleweight],” said Mares about his belief that Jermell should fight Tim Tszyu rather than the dangerous Sebastian Fundora.

“I’m with you on Tim Tszyu,” said Chris Mannix. “Watching him in his last fight against Terrel Gausha, he’s a very good offensive fighter, but there’s not a lot of head movement there. That’s kind of the opposite of Brian Castano.

“Brian Castano was a lot of movement. He’s in and out and throwing volume punches. Tim Tszyu can catch you with something big, but he’s also a target. For a fighter like Jermell Charlo, he’s right on his eyeliner. That seems like a fight where Charlo can harness that power of his and win by knockout.

“Plus, Tim Tszyu is probably going to keep getting better as he gets more fights. So maybe catching him now is catching him at the right time when it’s still a marketable fight,” said Mannix.

“Tszyu us the one that is trying to get this fight; he wants this fight,” said Mares. “If I was Tszyu, I would try and get more experience, but if he wants this fight, I think it’s a difficult fight for him.

“Tszyu is no head movement. He walks in straightforward with a lot of power and a big guy, but you can’t do that against a guy at the level of Jermell Charlo,” said Mares.

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